Brian, the first Briton to win a stage of the Tour in 1958, was one, along with Marsden poet Simon Armitage, whose wife Sue was a previous chairman of governors; former Netherthong pupil and author Annabel Pitcher; and Leeds-based Olympic and Commonwealth gold medal-winning boxer Nicola Adams.

Children in each house were then asked to research their hero and write a letter to persuade them to visit the school.

Deputy head and year 4 teacher Mark Crouch set his Robinson house crew to work and Brian was the first to respond and agree to take an assembly.

Mr Crouch said: “We wanted to choose some individuals who would inspire the children but who were also people they would need to find out about. We wanted people outside the children’s popular culture.

“The school is very keen on cycling and many of the children cycle to school. Brian has already inspired some of the children to cycle up Holme Moss, that’s a fantastic achievement for an eight-year-old.”

All Robinson house youngsters wrote a letter to Brian and Mr Crouch selected the best five – from Jay Smith, Jake Smith, Zara Farrow, Annabel McLean and Emma Flynn – to send.